Cupid's Strike
by Ryoko Porter
Summary: When Cupid decides that Jack needs a partner, what chaos will ensue? Will the Guardians be able to prevent him making a match? Will Jack consent?
1. Old Friends

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter One - Old Friends

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the newest Guardian come to greet us poor lowly servants of nature," the slanderous voice of Cupid greeted as Jack came to land on his

cloud.

"Oh come on, Id," Jack whined his name for his old friend. "You know I'm not going to act all high an' noble now, just 'cause everyone now knows that I'm stronger than you."

Cupid scoffed at the teasing, but made place for Jack to sit and poured him a drink of pink champagne anyway. That was just Jack's way, and he knew it. The kid had always been one for banter, wit, and sarcasm, for as long as the love spirit had known him. For near three hundred years the two of them had been friends, of sorts, and Cupid knew full well when an when not to get bent out of shape over something Jack had said... or done. Like when Jack had hid all of his arrows just before spring in the northern hemisphere. Cupid did not actually need the weapons, both of them knew, so there was no harm actually done. Though fewer marriages had been performed later that year than in most.

Cupid was an elemental spirit like Jack, though few realized it. He only supplemented his natural power for making spirits, humans, and animals lusty, by shooting arrows that made lust turn into love because it gave him something more to do. Just like Jack touching the world with his staff to ice it over, when just by his mere presence would everything start to turn into winter. That was something all elemental spirits did, play with their element to stay the boredom.

"So what brings you here then?" Cupid asked as he absently brushed his wavy golden locks away from his face, so to better look at his friend.

"Oh! I just thought I'd come here an' see if there was anyway I could convince you to teach me how to slow down those lustful feelings I'm getting my way from Aster and Tooth. I know it's not like I can make them stop, but..." Jack didn't continue as he scratched his own head in frustration.

"Oh? And where would the fun be in that? Maybe I like watching you squirm," Cupid answered. And squirm Jack did. Cupid had seen and felt how the pooka and the fairy both had started to act on their lust for his normally loner friend. Aster still tried to act disgruntled at Jack's mere presence, but he could not hide from Jack - or Cupid, himself - just how much he stared at Jack's best features. There were times that Cupid thought that he might have to shoot Jack with one of his arrows, just so anything that the giant rabbit creature might have done would have been consensual enough not to destroy the Guardians from within. While Tooth was more forward about her lust, but in a charming, non-threatening way that at worst was only slightly uncomfortable for Cupid to watch.

"Well that's why I said, 'anyway I could convince'. Maybe we could make a trade, or something?"

Cupid thought for a moment, considering if there was indeed anything he might actually want that Jack could give him. "To be honest, Jack, I've been wanting to see you fall under my magic for quite some time. In all my years of knowing you, the only time I've ever seen you lust for someone was when we first met. Ever since that, it's been like you're immune to my presence."

"It's because I'm dead, I think," Jack answered.

"What do you mean?" Cupid asked, astonished at the words. Jack then told him of how he'd reclaimed his memories and how he had died as a human before being made a winter elemental.

"I'll bet in that first meeting, your power just overwhelmed me despite my cold, dead flesh and well..." again Jack trailed off in his description, blushing a bit despite said, 'dead flesh'. He didn't need to say anything for Cupid to remember the events of that meeting. It was one Cupid would never forget. After all, a pretty new-born elemental clinging to you in a flush of lust was a hard thing to deny, even to an experienced lover such as himself. But after their hurried liaison, Cupid had taken the boy under his wing and taught him the ways of the spirit world, before they went their separate ways as friends.

"Well Jack, I could instead shoot you and someone, and let the love blossom into lust, instead of the usual way around," Cupid suggested. "Then no matter how lustful they may be, they won't go against the claim made by your lover."

"That wouldn't be too bad, I guess," Jack answered worriedly. "But who would you pick?"

Cupid thought for another moment. "It would have to be someone as asexual as you, else it be unfair if the lust never grew."

"That takes Bunny off the list then," Jack breathe a sigh of relief as he took a sip of some of the courage in his glass.

"They have to have enough time on their hands for you," Cupid observed, considering Jack's nomadic nature and how he was either out or in a spirit's life completely at a time.

"Leaves out Tooth," Jack smiled a little sadly. "And North, thank Mani."

Cupid laughed at the thought of Jack and North in the throes of passion together. Thank Mani, indeed.

"Why don't you just shoot yourself?" Jack then asked, giving Cupid a curious look.

"Now that is a tempting thought," Cupid conceded. "But I'm afraid that I'm neither asexual enough, nor have the time required to be fair to you."

Jack tilted his head like a sad puppy at the reply, but the smile on his lips told Cupid that he took no offence at the comment. It was too bad, because really, they would be good together. And Cupid would be lying if he didn't admit that he wanted another lustful go at Jack.

"Let me think about it Jack. If I'm going to doom one of my best friends to eternal love, I'm going to make sure that I make the right match."

"Alright," Jack held out his glass for Cupid to refill, "but give me a heads-up before you go shooting will you? I'd like to know who this mister or misses Jack Frost is going to be before the wedding."


	2. Stalking

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter 2 - Stalking

It was nearly a year before Cupid found the perfect partner for Jack. And while Jack had been getting restless about having to wait, a year was such a short time for an immortal. In the time, Cupid had observed Jack interacting with others, Guardians and elementals alike. And with each spirit Jack met, Cupid considered if they would be a good match for his friend. His criteria from the first discussion had not changed much since, only refined, and other rules were added to the list as Cupid searched.

Firstly, yes, any lover of Jack's would have to be primarily asexual. Or at least rarely sensitive to his own seductive presence. If only for not making Jack feel guilty for turning his lover away in bed, or not being forced into acts not in his nature. If Jack and his lover did have sex or did not, Cupid wanted it to be wanted on both parts.

Secondly, Jack's lover would have to have time for him. Or at least the ability to drop whatever he or she was doing so to focus on him when he drifted into town. Nothing, not even love, was going to force Jack to live in one place at all times. So unless the spirit was also nomatic like him, their relationship would be based on visits of varying frequency.

This came to another rule Cupid had made. If the other spirit was nomatic, then they would have to travel along similar routes as Jack. So that they would be more likely to be able to travel together or at least meet often enough to make the relationship work. Because even with his arrows, if a relationship could not logistically work than there was nothing for it and they would break up while still loving each other forever. And Cupid did not wish that in the least for his friend. So in other words, no summer elementals or the like for Jack.

Lastly, though most importantly, any spirit that he chose with Jack would have to be able to handle his bipolar nature. From observing him with the Guardians, Cupid knew that they were having a hard enough time dealing with it, let alone anyone who would be in love with him. The problem was that Jack, no matter his intentions to protect, was also a very destructive spirit. For every child he made smile, he made another fall and hurt themselves on the ice. For every life made more jolly with the snow, he made another more miserable. He even killed. It was just in Jack's elemental nature. Jack liked to decorate the world in shimmering white beauty that served as a toy for those who saw its potential. But in his wake Jack left the land cold and dangerous to those who saw that kind of potential.

When the first child had died in the snow that Jack had left since becoming a Guardian, an emergency meeting had been made. North, Bunny, and Tooth had all tried to reprimand Jack for being so clumsy with his power. For letting that child die. And Jack could only answer that he was sorry, but couldn't promise that it wouldn't happen again. That riled up the other Guardians. Only Sandy had stood up for Jack, explaining to his comrades that Jack couldn't help it. Apparently it hadn't actually occurred to them that Jack was an elemental, and thus lived by different rules than they did.

For a time after that incident, Cupid had considered making Sandy, Mister Jack Frost. But that hadn't lasted long. Sandy had fit all of the criteria, yet he just did not seem to make a good fit. Jack and his relationship seemed to already have a strict set of rules to it that Cupid could only guess at. They seemed to interact much like an understanding uncle playing with a rebellious nephew.

But it was all so perfect how Jack and Sandy should fit, so Cupid had mourned the impossibility of it until he came to the next best option.

It was only by chance that Cupid had gotten to see Jack and Pitch Black interact with one another. He had been off entertaining himself with some pretty little wood nymph as a distraction to the dilemma of Jack Frost's love life, when he saw out of the corner of his eye a shadow moving by. Thinking nothing of it, Cupid had ignored the shadow and let his attention again focus on the creature in his arms when he heard Jack's voice. Excusing himself from his would-be lover's presence, Cupid followed the sound of Jack's voice and what was to be sure Pitch's.

Cupid had never laid eyes on Pitch Black before, though he had heard stories. But seeing the dark spirit and how he played with Jack, he wondered at everything he had heard. Pitch was much younger looking than Cupid knew his age to be, for starters. Even his demeanor was more like that of a young man over an ancient warrior. And though Cupid knew that Jack and Pitch were enemies, he was struck with how easily they went back and forth between fighting and flirting. Especially on Pitch's side.

From what he knew about the Easter War - as the latest battle between the Guardians and Pitch Black and when Jack was made a Guardian was called by the spirit world - Cupid supposed that Pitch should hold a deep grudge over Jack for refusing him. But despite saying so in the fight happening before him, Cupid could see that Pitch was lying. And truly wanted Jack to change his mind instead.

Jack, for his part, seemed to be acting out of duty rather than actual anger at Pitch for anything. He seemed confused by Pitch, and yet curious. Like a clown fish coming out from and then into its anemone home, Jack went back and forth between joking with and then accusing Pitch of something or other.

The meeting lasted only for a very short time. Pitch eventually said whatever he had needed to say and then disappeared into his shadows once more. Leaving Jack to wonder about whatever had been said before going off in his own direction. Which just so happened to be in the same general direction that the shadow had gone.

From then on Cupid became intrigued by the concept of Jack Frost and Pitch Black being lovers. Pitch was the only spirit who Cupid had witnessed Jack flirting with, aside from himself. So interest was already there on both parts, making it even more curious.

Pitch's lifestyle fit the four rules Cupid had made.

He had no lovers in at least a millennia that Cupid knew of - and Cupid would know - so he was at least as little interested in sex as Jack. Certainly if he had been interested, that voice of his would have afforded him many lovers despite his dark nature.

Pitch had time enough for Jack. All of the time in the world. If he could spend centuries out of the limelight, plotting war against the Guardians, while still building up fear around the world, then Pitch had time.

Pitch was also not strictly nomadic. He had a home base - or so Cupid had heard - but fear traveled throughout the world, so Pitch must also. And it was easy enough to follow the winter chill that Jack brought, that sometimes killed.

And Pitch could certainly handle the idea that Jack brought pain and suffering to the world. Though Cupid wondered how the fear elemental felt about Jack's sweet, fun, Guardian side. Did he want to crush it and corrupt Jack? Or did he want to keep it for himself, as part of the whole package that was Jack Frost? Cupid had to find out.

So instead of following Jack around as he had, Cupid followed Pitch.

Finding Pitch wasn't all that hard, all one had to do was follow the trail of scared children. Pitch didn't have to so much to frighten a human child, or their parent. A little fright here and a little fright there, and Pitch got his jollies. The world was full of suffering and fear. So really, Pitch like Jack and himself, didn't actually need to do anything. Only his presence was needed to make the humans uneasy. But like Jack liked to freeze things with his touch and Cupid himself like to shoot arrows to make love blossom, Pitch liked to see what made people afraid up close.

Watching Pitch at his work was more enlightening than Cupid had dreamed it might have been. Pitch was the kind of man who showed his emotions very freely. Most thought his behavior was merely an act, though Cupid couldn't say why they thought that. Because it wasn't as if Pitch had anything to lose by showing his anger, surprise, excitement, or loneliness. Pitch was alone afterall.

There was a general rule in the spirit world that dark spirits were not necessarily evil creatures to be avoided at all costs. They just did what they did because it was in their nature; just as it was in the nature of a fairy to collect little treasures that sometimes came in the form of teeth, or winter elementals to bring cold with them wherever they went. But in the case of Pitch Black, who had fought the Guardians so often, it was generally considered a better plan to avoid him. If for no other reason than getting on the wrong side of the Guardians. So Pitch was invisible to the humans, and inconsequential to the spirits. Thus, utterly alone.

It was probably why Pitch would so often do something to catch the attention of Jack when the winter elemental was in the area. Cupid guessed that to Pitch, any attention was good attention. And that to Pitch, Jack's curious though somewhat violent attention was the best kind of attention that he knew.

As he observed Pitch, Cupid began to wonder what the consequences of making a love grow out of Jack and Pitch's interesting interactions would be. Certainly the Guardians would be quite upset. They had been fighting a war against Pitch for longer than many spirits - including Jack - had been alive. And for their newest and probably most powerful Guardian to take their enemy as a lover, it would likely create a great amount of discord. Yet, beyond that, what would there be?

Finally, after nearly a month of following Pitch, Cupid made his decision. He would shoot both Jack and Pitch with arrows so that they would fall deeply in love.

Jack had asked him to inform him of his choice however. So before he made any other move towards his goal, Cupid made a special appearance at one of the monthly Guardian meetings.

He had been greeted with quite a lot of surprise. None of the Guardians besides Jack were close friends of his, they simply hadn't clicked like that. But they were warm and inviting and asked him why he had come.

"A year ago Jack you came to me and I decided to make you a match," Cupid said, not making Jack suffer through the Guardians knowing all of why he'd made that decision. "And I've finally found the perfect one for you."

Everyone was quite taken aback by the news. Jack was obviously torn between curious and worried, having known him and his antics for so long. North simply seemed surprised. Bunny and Tooth each had a kind of expression that promised reward if it was themselves or punishment if it was any other. While Sandy just seemed mildly quizzical.

"Jack Frost, your soon-to-be Mister Jack Frost, is Pitch Black."


	3. Making a Deal

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter 3 - Making a Deal

If Cupid had thought that he would get a reaction like the one he got now when he'd announced that he would make a match of Jack and Pitch, than he would have simply shot arrows first and answered questions later. At least with it done, there was nothing the Guardians could do but yell. He had, of course, expected that the reaction to his decree would be raucous and angry. What he hadn't quite counted on was for Bunny and Tooth to both declare war against him .

Rather it was not war against him but war against his coming action that they had cried for.

"I won't let you do it," Aster growled at him. "Even if I've gotta jump in front of every arrow you got aimed at the frostbite for the rest of his life!"

Cupid did not bother to explain why that would be useless to the oversized rabbit. Instead he looked to Jack for his reaction to the news. He could see that Jack was more focused on his friends than the news, however, and Cupid guessed that the boy had simply accepted the idea as soon as it was said. Jack was just that way sometimes, at least with him, despite the years of abandonment issues that made him quite the skeptic. Jack looked instead, to be very unimpressed by Bunny's declaration to protect him from love for the rest of his life. The winter spirit knew, of course, just how silly the idea was. Yet he did not look to be too much in a hurry to tell Aster why. Cupid almost felt sorry for Aster.

"But Bunny," North cut in with his thick accent. "With just one hit of arrow, you would not be loving Jack enough to be protecting him again." It was a rather cruel statement from North actually, despite the good natured way he said it.

Poor Aster sunk down as much as he could while standing, without looking too much like a sad animal. His embarrassment showing though he tried not to let Jack see it. But of course Jack did, and he put his hand on Bunny's shoulder in sympathy. Cupid really did then feel sorry for Aster.

"I think that it is good idea," North then announced, to the surprised of everyone. "Jack would be good influence on Boogyman."

"I can see that," Tooth answered thoughtfully, finally coming to a stop of the flitting about that she had started when Cupid had made his decree. "Jack's not exactly perfect when it comes to being able to protect children, but that's what Pitch might like about him. And Jack's certainly attractive enough to keep Pitch distracted from hurting any more children." Jack turned to her with a look of surprise at her honest yet calculating words. "But that doesn't mean that I'm going to let you do it Cupid!"

"Really not?" Cupid finally answered the challenge.

"All we have to do is make sure that Jack and Pitch don't actually see each other, right? How hard can that be? We can keep that from happening. And it's not like you're going to be around Jack for every moment of every day until he and Pitch are close enough for you to do the job."

Cupid did not dare look at Jack then, because then he was sure that none of the guardians had known about the many times Jack and Pitch had fought in just the last month alone. Those two saw each other quite regularly, Cupid knew, even if it wasn't usually a friendly affair. But if he looked at Jack then, he might have given away his young friend's little secret.

"Well there's where you've got it wrong, little lady," Cupid corrected Tooth's assumption. "The idea that anyone shot by one of my arrows will immediately fall in love with the next person they next see, is an old wive's tale. Really, I write the names of their intended onto the arrow I shoot so that there's no mistake. I could shoot Jack right now and he'd fall madly in love with Pitch."

"NO!" came the cries of Bunny and Tooth both as they positioned themselves in front of Jack defensively. More surprisingly to Cupid, Sandy had also moved in between Jack and himself, looking nearly as jealous as the other two.

Cupid put up his hands to show that he was unarmed. "I won't,. I won't, I won't shoot right now. I promise." At this the Guardians defending Jack all relaxed a bit, but stayed where they were between the two old friends. It was trying Cupid's patience quite a bit, so he hollered over them to the one that had started him on the quest at all. "But Jackie, kid, what do you think about my choice. You're the only one I haven't heard from, and you're most important."

Jack then gently flew over the heads of his fellow Guardians and landed just in front of Cupid so that they could talk. "Well Id, I think it's safe to say that you probably know me better than anyone," Jack started, surprising everyone about as much as Cupid's announcement had. "So you probably know what you're doin'. Actually I can't say that I'm all that surprised."

"And?" Cupid pushed since it was such a big decision.

"And I can see it, so, why not? Let's give it a go," Jack consented.

"WHAT?!"

Both Cupid and Jack had been prepared for that outburst by all of the Guardians, both covering their ears just in time.

"No, no, no! Now see here Cupid, you will not be making our Jack and that blighter Pitch a couple! Or so help me, the Man in the Moon will hear of it and strip you of your power if I've got any say in it!" bellowed Aster, forgetting his shame.

"Leave him out of this!" Jack hissed back, still distrusting of the ever silent overseer of spirit kind.

"I'll tell you what," Cupid sighed, knowing that what he was about to suggest was more trouble than it was worth. "I won't shoot Jack until after I've gotten Pitch. That way you'll have two chances to prevent it a love affair between the two."

At this Bunny and Tooth both brightened, hope filling their hearts once more.

So the deal was made. Cupid would hunt down Pitch and make him fall madly in love with Jack before hunting down Jack to return the favor. And all the while, Bunny and Tooth would be fighting to prevent both arrows from finding their mark. While Sandy and North, who both agreed that Jack's consent was enough to not fight it, would stay out of the whole thing.

And just to make things fair, Cupid had only one week to shoot both of his victims.

Sandy and North were already making settling in the prize of their bet about who would win.


	4. The Hunt: Part 1

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Quick Note: I have not read the books, so any information that I reference from them comes from the _Rise of the Guardians _wiki, and patterns in other fanfiction that I've noticed.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Four - The Hunt: Part 1

Cupid had to admit it, he hadn't had this much fun in years.

The race between him and the two Guardians most troubled by the idea of Jack and Pitch being lovers had started the morning after he had arrived to tell them of his plan. And it was agreed that neither Sandy or North would involve themselves, since they were playing neutral. Nor could Jack get involved, since was the "prize", of sorts.

There were other rules made, of course, but Cupid hadn't bothered to remember them since they were mostly made to support him. He was fighting to do his "job" against two well seasoned warriors, after all. Toothiana and Bunnymound were infamous for their skill on the battlefield, having fought in the Immortal Wars. But he wasn't a warrior, he was a bringer of love. When the wars were being fought by other spirits, he had remained neutral and stayed out of the way. Now though, he was facing an entire week of trying to outwit the two determined Guardians.

Already he had been captured by Tooth's little fairy folk in a trap meant only to distract him long enough to give his two opponents a head start. Which he had answered by setting hordes of rabbits and birds upon Bunny and Tooth in a flurry of lust. He almost felt sorry for them, because being wrapped up in little more than twine was much easier to deal with that ravenous, horny, innocent animals.

His strategy, Cupid decided, would be very like what he had done before when he had tracked the Nightmare King for a month. Just follow the fear and screams of little children. It didn't take him long at all, actually, to find Pitch. He was not that far from where Cupid had left him to tell Jack of his decision. Still hiding in the dark, just outside of some little town in eastern europe, Cupid never did care what the humans named their homes.

The boogieman was leaning against a tree, at the moment, waiting for the sun to go down so that he could best let his power run rampant. Cupid could only guess why the dark spirit would choose to stay here and wait when there were so many other souls to drive mad around the world. Whatever it meant, it could not bode well for the sleepy little town.

Quietly as he could, though still high in the sky above he quarry, Cupid took his bow and strung it tautly. He wanted to take no risk at missing his mark, since Pitch could so easily disappear for the rest of the week if he got wind of what was about to happen. Cupid decided that he best lower his cloud to shoot, since his wings made a tremendous noise that any spirit would recognise and humans tended to think was their own hearts beating faster. So letting his cloud grow heavy like fog, Cupid got into position and took an arrow from his quiver and wrote Jack's name along the shaft. Then pulling back the heavy weight of the string, he made practiced aim at Pitch Black.

The spirit who was looking him directly in the eye, despite the yards of distance.

Letting his arrow fly, Cupid wasn't surprised that it sank into the tree that Pitch had been leaning against before it vanished away like they all did once they hit a mark. Grabbing yet another arrow and magically writing "Jack Frost" onto it, he pulled it back on the bow, ready to shoot at the first sign of Pitch.

"Well, well," Cupid heard the coy voice of Pitch come from behind him. Turning quick and shooting, he hit another tree. "You've returned I see. Disappearing after trailing me for a month, I was beginning to think that you'd gotten bored."

Hearing the voice again behind him, Cupid grabbed another arrow and again putting a name to it, he shot... and hit the same tree he'd first hit. Frustrated, Cupid stretched his wings and flew down to the ground where he could better aim.

"Tell me, what would a spirit like yourself want with me?" This time the voice came from all around Cupid.

Keeping his calm, Cupid decided that telling Pitch his plan wouldn't help his cause in the least. "Oh no reason. Just thought I'd have a little fun is all."

"A little fun?" the voice this time seemed hesitant and calculating, and just to his left.

Not daring to look before he shot and give himself away, Cupid threw back his arms and shot from above his head - a move only someone with unlimited time could master. Only with the arrow flying did he dare to turn, just in time to see a boomerang knock it off trajectory, just inches away from Pitch.

"Oh! Come on!" Cupid screamed in annoyance as Pitch again disappeared and the two Guardians came into view.

"I'm not gonna let you do it, ya bloody wombat!" Aster growled as he came close to Cupid, effectively getting in his face while stretching himself up so that he stood as tall as the above average standing man. "Even if I've gotta keep that blighter safe from ya."

But just as Cupid was about to respond from out of the corner of his eye he saw black energy, like sand, coming at them. The two heroes and neutral spirit all dashed out of the way, each going their separate direction.

Following the line of darkness to its source, Cupid found Pitch standing not ten feet away from him, his attention focused on the Guardians. And again he prepped for his shot. Before he could make it this time, however, there was a flurry of bright feathers in his face as Tooth had barreled into him in an effort to steal the bow from his hands. Each of them had a strong grasp of the bow and pulled as mightily as they could. Neither noticing the fight between Pitch and Bunny, or the dark sand coming at them.

As he was knocked to the ground, Cupid felt his grip on the bow fail and only hoped that Tooth had also lost her hold. His right wing bent at an odd angle, he cried out at the pain but moved to raise himself as quickly as possible. His bow had indeed been thrown from Tooth's grip also and had landed a good distance beyond either of them. But seeing his attention on it, Tooth also pointed herself at the prize, ready to race to it. As if an alarm had been pulled the two threw themselves into the air at the same moment, and dove for the bow in a arche of madness.

Tooth made it to the bow first and held it tight to her body as she tried to speed off again. But Cupid wasn't having it. In a move much like hers against him, he plowed his body into hers and grabbed at the the bow. Then using his greater weight and anger her pulled it out of her hands and turned violently to the fight still raging between Bunny and his target.

Using his large wings as a shield from Tooth's incsesnt grabbing, Cupid pull yet another arrow from the quiver and putting Jack's name onto it he pulled the string tight and then let it go.

But Pitch saw it coming. So with liquid grace despite the fight he was in, he disappeared into one of his shadows, leaving Aster to be scrapped by the blade of the arrow tip as it flew past him and hit yet another tree.

"'A little fun' you say?" came Pitch's voice from every direction. "Interesting."


	5. The Hunt: Part 2

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Five - The Hunt: Part 2

It was near three days since Cupid had heard or seen anything of Pitch Black since that first attack. When he'd heard the word, "interesting", come from the darkness all around him and the two Guardians, Cupid thought that perhaps the Nightmare King was game. Sure he hadn't known what he would be game for, but he seemed at least curious enough to not completely disappear like he had.

Bunny and Tooth had left also, and good riddance to them Cupid thought. They had screwed everything up and then just disappeared. Perhaps they were tracking Pitch, he considered. Or maybe they were just moving about in any direction in search of his quarry. He did not know what they planned to with Pitch once they found him, if they found him. He knew that they intended to protect him from any arrow shot his way, but what would that entail?

Finally tired of what felt like aimless following of fear and sorrow, Cupid decided that a break was in order. He didn't normally visit North in his factory, his last visit had been his first, but it seemed like the best place to settle down for a short time.

The factory was lively as always. North greeted him warmly. And so did Sandy, who apparently had decided to stay until the week was over. But just as he went to sit and drink with the men, he noticed the absence of one lively spirit.

"Where is Jack?"

"Oh you be knowing Jack, cannot stay in one place," North answered jovially. "He left yesterday after Tooth visit to keep us up to date on game."

"Toothiana was here?" Cupid was surprised, thinking that she and Bunny would stay together throughout the week.

"Told us about that fight between you two. She had broken finger," North teased.

"Well, I'm sorry for that," Cupid said as he felt a tinge of pain in the wing that had been bent oddly during said fight. "Do you know where Jack went?"

This time Sandy answered, making the shape of an island just west of the european continent. Cupid knew it well, but for the life of him he could not remember what humans called it.

After remaining with North and Sandy for some time, Cupid thanked them for the wine and took his leave. He'd learned quite a bit while with them, including Bunny and Tooth's plan on how to thwart his own. It wasn't detailed, the information he'd gotten from North - the old Russian would not betray his friends so easily - yet it was enough for him to guess how best to avoid them.

Bunny would be the easiest; he had apparently decided to go on a hunt for shadows, focusing near where they had met three days ago, planning to push the Nightmare King back into his own hiding places. While Tooth was trying what Cupid had done himself - thus making her movements easy enough to guess - following the fear of children in hopes to find Pitch, but to North or Sandy's knowledge she was failing miserably.

It made Cupid smile darkly at the idea of how they thought that they could defeat him with what might have been his own tactics. They might be stronger than him, he realized, but he was more clever. So clever in fact that he realized that the best way to find Pitch was to find Jack Frost.

Cupid had never flown so quickly in his long life, he'd never had to. He was so fast in fact that he made it from North's high latitude factory, to the island where Jack played in just a few minutes when it should have taken him nearly a day. He was not a spirit of speed.

Finding Jack was not difficult. It was hard to miss his cold energy. But Cupid did not dare let his old friend know that he was near, for his plan to work. So slowing his pace and using a cloud to carry him nearer he watched for visual confirmation.

Cupid wasn't disappointed. Jack was atop a tall egg shaped building, barely keeping himself from being swept away by the wing. And beside him sat Pitch Black.

The two spirits appeared to be talking in a most civilized way that made Cupid more than a little curious. So he guided his stolen cloud as closed as he dared and used senses that humans could only dream of to hear what was being said.

"That fool!" Pitch ranted. "How dare he make such a decision! And without asking?!"

"He generally doesn't ask anyone. You know how love goes, it just happens," Jack answered.

"But I am the Nightmare King!" Pitch raged, throwing himself up and letting his shadow sweep over the city below before calming and sitting back besides Jack. "And he told you."

"Only because we're old friends," Jack countered in a kinder way than Cupid expected.

The two stayed quietly together for quite a while after that. And Cupid hated the idea of disturbing them with his, what seemed unnecessary, arrows.

The peace was not the last, however, because very quickly came the sounds of humming from Tooth's wings and earth coming apart for one of Bunny's tunnels. Cupid guessed that they had somehow felt the flush of dark power when Pitch had raged. Jack and Pitch heard the Guardians too, but neither moved quick enough. Though standing, they were far too close to each other when the Guardians set eyes on them.

"Now what?" Aster started.

"Now guys, I can explain," Jack defended with his arms held up in a show of peace.

Cupid readied his bow and an arrow to shoot. No one had yet noticed him.

"What in the world were you doin' with 'em?" the pooka demanded, his accent growing with his anger. He was perched atop the same building, having dug through the architecture with his magic, so was able to get very close to Jack and Pitch, indeed.

"He deserves to know, Bunny!" Jack yelled back at his friend.

"Fine, I'll grant ya that one. But that don't explain why yer all cozy with 'em!"

Then there was chaos and Cupid lost his shot. Bunny threw all of his senses away and attacked Jack with his boomerangs held like daggers. While Pitch was attacked by Tooth, throwing him onto his back against the glass and steel building. Cupid watched with horror as the four fought, each with a different ferocity. Aster was in a blind and jealous rage, paying no heed to anything Jack said. Jack was meek and trying to avoid a fight, while still not letting himself fly off, in case Aster forget himself fall to the ground far below. While the other two were somewhere in between wanting to kill each other and being more concerned about the other two fighting. When Aster hit Jack square across the jaw, however, Cupid had enough.

Putting the arrow he had marked for Pitch between his teeth, Cupid drew another that he did not put a name to and let it fly by Aster too close for anyone's comfort. Then he drew another and let that one go between Tooth and Pitch.

"I haven't put any names to these ones," Cupid called out to the four. "So if they hit you, they'll just hurt. The only one I want is you, Pitch!"

"And so you'll have me!" Pitch responded, throwing his power to make a kind of rope that wrapped around Cupid's middle. "Or maybe I'll have you."

The next few moments were a blur for Cupid as he felt himself be dragged across the sky and into the hands of Pitch Black, the Nightmare King. A hand went around his neck while the other held his own hands, and he was lifted up so that no part of him was supported by either his feet, wings, or magic. He couldn't breath. And though he was an immortal, he still had to fight the panic growing in his stomach as he tried to gulp for air.

Cupid had no idea how long he was there, hanging in the powerful hands of Pitch, before he was saved.

"Id!" he heard Jack cry. And then he felt a cold hard body slam into his middle, the momentum freeing him from Pitch's grasp. Jack flew him a good distance away from his attacker and helped him to hang in the air with his strong wings as he coughed.

Finally able to breath properly, Cupid saw that the other two Guardians and Pitch had resumed their fighting atop the precarious building. He also noted that he still held the arrow with Jack's name on it tightly in his hand and his bow in the other. Releasing himself from Jack's grasp he took aim at Pitch once again.

"Id, are you sure?" he heard Jack whisper. But despite of or perhaps because of the violence that just occurred, Cupid was more sure than ever that Pitch Black and Jack Frost should be lovers.

Letting the arrow fly, Cupid was pleased to see that he had finally hit his mark.


	6. The Capture

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Six - The Capture

Everything and everyone came to a stand still. The world seemed to go silent with shock. Tooth had thrown her hands up to her mouth, her eyes wide at the arrow. Bunny didn't look at it at all, instead his angry gaze was at Cupid, himself. Jack had stretched his body out in the air, like he had reached to catch the arrow, but missed. While Pitch looked down at the projectile plunged into his chest, his dark energy growing.

Cupid and the other spirits watched as Pitch seemed to struggle with himself, lifting his hand to clutch at the arrow. Then with a wicked growl he pulled at it, trying desperately to take it out of his heart. But it would not move, and before long it disappeared entirely, leaving Pitch empty handed and heavy hearted.

"Pitch?" Jack called to him absently, seeming to forget that the two other Guardians were present.

As the sound of the husky voice, everyone's attention turned to the winter spirit. Cupid knew that his expression was likely very like Toothiana's, who had only concern shining through her big eyes. Because, though he was sure that his plan would eventually work, it was only half finished and at its most precarious point. Aster's expression was one that was torn between horror and jealousy. While Pitch's was unreadable, his dual-colored eyes giving away nothing that might have been playing behind them.

"Pitch," Jack said again, quietly and with less hesitation than the first time.

"Give me a moment, love," Pitch answered, his eyes speaking volumes to Jack apparently.

But the word, 'love', coming from Pitch's lips was the last straw for poor Aster's nerves. With a cry of Jack's name to get his attention, he used all of his might to hop from the building into midair toward Jack.

Amazed at his friends action, Jack quickly flew the last few feet to catch the pooka before he hurt himself. Aster had counted on that move and when he came into contact he wrapped his larger body around Jack, cutting off the winter spirit's hold on the wind which kept him aloft. The two then fell to the earth faster than anyone around them could stop. Not that Aster would have let anyone stop their descent.

As the ground neared, Aster let out a strong whistle and the ground below them opened as if he had tapped upon it twice with his foot. Then he flipped them around so that he would get the brunt of the impact as they fell into it, calling to the other four immortals far above; "I'll be keepin' our Jackie safe for a few days. Later Tooth. So long ya blighters!"

Then he and Jack disappeared down the hole, the sound of Jack's screaming being muffled by fur and the ground closing behind them.

Cupid had to admit, he hadn't quite expected that kind of move by the alien kangaroo. It would make finishing his job damn near impossible. But he also had to admit that laughter was the last sound he'd expect to hear after an event like what had just happened. Dark laughter. Horrible laughter. Laughter that made Cupid quake a bit with fear.

"Does he honestly think that he can keep Jack safe from me underground?"

"Pitch," came the quiet voice of the Guardian fairy left behind with the Nightmare King and Cupid. "Did it work? Are... are you in love with Jack now?"

"_Of course it bloody worked!_" Pitch hollered at her. "And none of you will keep what is mine away from me!" Then Pitch turned to Cupid; "now what are you going to do about the mess you've started creampuff?"

"You're going to have to get him out of those tunnels, I don't do underground," Cupid replied. "Call it a family rule."

Pitch made a gruesome face back at him, showing his teeth in a sneer.

"Well, I think that I'll tell North and Sandy what's going on," Tooth interrupted the tense moment between the two men and then flew off, heading north.

Undeterred from his mean attention and ignorant of the fairy's flight, Pitch growled once more. "You will never touch him again," Pitch said in a low voice that promised every kind of horror that Cupid could imagine if he failed to hear.

"That was a long time ago, now the kid's more like a brother to me," Cupid answered, his worry for Jack growing as the subject came to him. "But know this boogieman; if you hurt him, you should pray the Guardians find you first. They live by a code and I do not."

At his threat, Pitch laughed. This time the sound was more cordule and sounded a bit self-deprecating to Cupid. "I wouldn't dream of it. You know that well enough. The rabbit on the other hand..."

So Cupid told Pitch everything. From how he had met Jack all those years before and the relationship they had shared since. To how Jack had come to him a year before, asking how to deter unwanted affection. He told him how he'd come to the decision that Pitch himself and Jack would be the best possible pairing that he could see, and how all of the Guardians had reacted to the news of his choice. Then he went over the general plan everyone had had, to his best knowledge anyway. And finally, he told Pitch of the scratch that Aster had gotten from an arrow meant for him on that very first day of hunting.

"So you mean to tell me, that because of your recklessness, that the rabbit is now in love with Jack also?" Pitch said a little too calmly. "Oh good, and here I thought that this would be too easy. That pooka won't be quick to give up his claim on Jack, especially to me."

"What will you do then?" Cupid wondered.

"You mean, what will we do?" Pitch corrected. "I will smoke that rabbit out of his hole using the memories of how he became the last of his kind. Then you will go and collect Jack, and make him mine."

"I already told you, I don't do underground."

"Would you rather get the rabbit to come out while I collect Jack?"

"Perhaps that would be the better way. Then no one would have to be hurt," Cupid said, hesitating to become the kind of spirit that fought wars.

"I left that rabbit alive to watch him suffer the loneliness of losing everything, everyone. But I will kill him also if he thinks that he can take Jack away from me a second time."

"A 'second'?" Cupid wondered what Pitch meant.


	7. A Visit in the Shadows

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Seven - A Visit in the Shadows

Two days.

Cupid had just two days to get Jack out of Aster Bunnymound's underground habitat before Pitch took over and did things his way. He was still amazed that he had been able to convince the Nightmare King that he should be given a chance at all, let alone be given two whole days. But he supposed it was simply a mark of Pitch's love for Jack, though he was a creature of fear he obviously didn't prefer to start his and Jack's relationship that way.

On the third day, which would also be the last day Cupid would get to shoot Jack with one of his arrows as according to the deal he'd made with the Guardians, Pitch would overwhelm the underground world with his shadows. Kill Aster. Take Jack away as his prize. And whatever else, Cupid did not dare to imagine.

It was that unimaginable bit that worried Cupid the most. For the first time since making the deal with the Guardians, he regretted agreeing to limit the time when he could finish the job. If Jack was not shot, if he did not love Pitch, then the war between the Guardians and Pitch would become deadly, like it had been a millenia ago. So in an effort to avoid such a war, Cupid had pressed Pitch into the deal to let him take care of finding and taking back Jack. While he did, Pitch would be growing his army of nightmares and fearlings for his attack on the tunneled world of his nemesis, Aster.

It worried Cupid.

It worried Cupid enough to rush back to North's factory and beg for the other three Guardians to help him. Of course, Tooth pointed out that it was against the rules for North or Sandy to get involved.

"Would you rather that your friend's world is invaded? Or that he dies? Because that is was is going to happen in Pitch finds Jack still in the rabbit's hole three days from now," Cupid snapped. "Look, it's not a game anymore. And I regret telling any of you my plan in the first place. It would have been so much easier had I done things the way I always do, quietly."

"And you still be thinking that Pitch is best suited to Jack?" North questioned while getting between the female fairy and himself, guarding her from his rage.

"I know so. Notice, it was a Guardian who raised the stakes to kidnapping, not Pitch. Even without his affection being returned yet, Pitch has been tamed by the promise of Jack being his."

"Do not let boogieman hear you say that!" North laughed. "We will help you, for sake of Bunny. Now come, we go!"

"No, no, I don't do underground," Cupid said, slowly backing away and hoping that they wouldn't notice. "And I don't think Aster would appreciate seeing me anywhere within his..."

Cupid didn't get to finish his defence, not that he could later say he was terribly surprised by that. As he spoke, North had used one of his snowglobe a doorway to the Warren, and Sandy had pushed Cupid himself through it. At first, Cupid had screamed like a child Pitch was giving nightmares to. It simply was not in his nature to be underground, to not feel the movement of air in the sensitive feathers on his wings. Not to have the light of the sun or stars above him. Not to be free and indiscriminate.

His screaming was stopped, however, when the cold, wet, shock of a snow ball hit him in the face. Shaking the ice away he looked to see Jack standing not too far from him, a wicked grin on his face.

"'Family thing' huh?" Jack teased, reminding Cupid of his usual excuse for not going underground.

"Oh! Shut up!" Cupid quipped, standing up from where he'd fallen into the Warren and shaking the snow from his face and body. When sufficiently free of the evidence of Jack's attack, he let himself look about at the underground world. It wasn't nearly as bad as he had imagined. In fact it was very like the world above ground, with an unending spring that charmed him. Still there was no breeze to play with his feathers, and the light seemed oddly unnatural. So it wasn't perfect. It was just good enough not to make him afraid. For now.

"What the bloody hell are you doin' here?" Cupid heard before he saw Aster come at him, boomerang at the ready.

"I've come for Jack," Cupid answered, pulling out his unstrung bow.

"Don't even think about it! You shoot one arrow and I'll break them all. And that bow of yours too!"

Undeterred, Cupid looked straight into the large eyes of the creature before him. For the second time the large rabbit stretched himself up, trying to look bigger and meet his eyes straight on. Silently challenging each other, he and Aster stood like that for some minutes before Jack interrupted them.

"Okay guys, cool it. What are you guys doing here?"

Turning to the boy, Cupid answered him; "well, if you haven't noticed Jack, your friend here kidnapped you. How you doin' by the way? He treating you well?"

Seeing that he was being ignored anyway, Aster let himself relax enough so that he wasn't stretched to an uncomfortable height and moved so that Jack and Cupid could better talk, though not far enough away to not have either within reach if he needed to.

"Yeah, actually since we got here he's been avoiding me," Jack answered.

"Probably trying to keep control of himself," Cupid noted before he turned back to Aster. "I'll bet you're feeling that scratch I gave you. You're trying to not let your instincts take over, aren't you?"

"Will this ever go away?" Aster asked as he rubbed the place on his arm where Cupid noticed for the first time that he still bled from the scratch made days ago.

"Not likely in this case. But it'll scar over and heal, and the strength of your love for Jack right now will become only a memory. You will always love him, just not quite so strongly."

"Then why don't you finish the job? Shot me now and then the kid, only with my name on his arrow instead of that blighter's," Aster demanded, again getting into Cupids face. "That's the only kind of arrow I'll let you shoot at the kid while he here, or anywhere!"

"_Bunny!_" the booming voice on North interrupted, throwing his strong naughty arm around Aster's shoulder before Cupid could respond. "Come. I think we must talk. I bring vodka to calm your nerves!"

Cupid watched Aster's expression change from anger at him to being annoyed at North; "I can't leave him..."

"Sandy and Tooth keep eye on Cupid!" North promised as he started to pull Aster away. "Come Bunny, we talk! We drink!"

Watching North lead the alien rabbit down one of the tunnels to another part of the Warren, Cupid sighed in relief. Then turning back to Jack he became intent of getting the truth from him. "So how are you? Really?"

Jack signed also, though instead of relief his revealed stress. "Alright for now. But I can't stay here for long. And I won't make it until the end of the week down here."

"What do you mean Jack?" Tooth asked gently, as she and Sandy flew over to join the conversation.

"I mean that I've been holding back. Hell, I've only been here a few hours and already I can feel the Warren get a bit colder, though I don't think Bunny's noticed."

A golden question mark appeared over Sandy's head.

"The snow, Sandy, you should know that," Cupid chided. "He can't keep the ice and snow out of the Warren for long while he's here."

"It follows me Sandy. And it's not going to take long for me to lose control and cover this whole place with more snow than it can handle."

"Then you should get out of here! Bunny will never forgive you if you bury this place!" Tooth announced obviously.

"Don't you think I've tried? But Bunny's put up some kind of barrier; I can't even enter any to the tunnels that go up to the surface without somehow losing my way. And I've told him about what's going to happen to the Warren if I do stay, but he keeps saying that I can control it. But I can't! Not for that long!" Jack complained, his voice growing more and more desperate as he spoke.

Cupid put his hand on Jack's shoulder to calm his nerves; "a confusion spell it sounds like. I didn't know Aster could use magic."

"He can't," Tooth corrected. "It's probably a drug or something instead."

Cupid felt a flush of anger at the idea of the pooka drugging Jack. And then panic at the idea of Pitch learning the same information.

"Just to be sure, Jack, why don't you show us the way to the nearest tunnel up," Tooth suggested.

Jack noded and then led the three other spirits across the field to a far wall; "I know there's one around here."

They watched Jack then with growing concern, as he randomly wandered past two tunnel ways, hesitated at a third without seeming to see it, and then continued on to the next. They weren't sure, just from watching if he could actually sense them, or if he hesitated because he remembered that there should be one where he stood. So talking amongst themselves about the possible origin on Jack's confused state, they continued to follow from far enough away that he would not hear them.

"This way Jack," came the smooth, coy voice of Pitch from the next tunnel. Following the sound Jack came to the doorway, finding Pitch just inside of it, hiding in its shade.

"I thought you couldn't come until three days from now!" Jack said, standing as close to Pitch as he dare without stepping into the tunnelway.

"I cannot attack, but I did not say that I wouldn't visit," Pitch answered, putting out his hand to cup Jack's pretty face. "Know this though, I will destroy this place in three days if you do not come to me."

"I can't," Jack hesitated, looking away as he did. But the hand Pitch had on his cheek tightened and pulled him back to facing its owner.

"You've been drugged," Pitch said matter of factly as he looked deeply into Jack's unfocusing eyes. Then suddenly, Jack felt as though he needed to retch, and he tried to pull way so that he could vomit away from Pitch. "It's alright Jack, just spit it out," the Nightmare King gently ordered. So Jack did, his body not caring if he was acting like he was the type to take orders from anyone, which he wasn't, it just wanted something out.

The 'something' turned out to be the black sand of Pitch's power. When the vomit hit the floor between them, Jack could see that the sand was wrapped around what looked like a somewhat digested flowerpod. He recognised it as the pretty thing that Aster had insisted he eat with the rest of the salad he had made for Jack and himself earlier.

"There now, that's better," Pitch comforted, pulling Jack back upright. "The rabbit will pay for that, no matter what. But remember Jack, if you come to me before Cupid's time is up, then his domaine and him will survive." Pitch then bent, letting his face come into the light of the Warren, taking Jack's lips in a deep kiss. "You are mine, Jack, and you always will be," he whispered before kissing Jack again.

From the distance Cupid, Tooth, and Sandy still quietly watched, as they had through the whole interaction. The Guardians had been surprised with how gently Pitch treated Jack. While Cupid himself, was shocked at the poison that had been fished from Jack's body.

"That is why I chose Pitch," Cupid pointed out as the three of them watched the second kiss progress into a kind of passion that showed both Pitch and Jack's true affection for one another.


	8. Chancing Romance

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Eight - Chancing Romance

Pitch left right way when his second kiss with Jack ended, muttering something about 'self control' and sinking into the shadows. And not giving Jack a moment to catch his breath, Cupid, Tooth, and Sandy rushed over to him in a flurry of questions.

"Jack! Are you alright? You just vomited, you should brush your teeth before he acid does any damage!" Tooth worried as she flitted around him.

"That looked like a quite a pair of kisses, Jack," Cupid teased. "I'm wondering if I need to shoot you at all!"

Jack glared at his old friend in response. But Cupid was not impressed, not with the boy's face still so colorful from his recent passion. Their attention was quickly interrupted, however, when Sandy lifted himself into view, holding the poison flower with his magic. Looking at it, Jack's expression changed into something that Cupid did fear. An expression that promised pain and suffering on the one who had poisoned him. E. Aster Bunnymund.

Taking the flower from Sandy, unmindful of whatever might have been on it from his own stomach, Jack collected what little wind there was in the Warren and used it to take flight. Like a bullet he took off in the direction that North had taken Aster, leaving his friends to comically try to catch up to him. At such a break-neck speed, it did not take Jack long to find North and his quarry. The two old men were both well on their way to getting drunk and hardly noticed Jack when he appeared. Ignoring North's beckons, Jack went straight up to Bunny and threw his fist and hard as he could into his nose.

"You fucking roofied me?!" Jack screamed as he again punched Aster in the face.

By the second hit everyone had caught up to the scene. Cupid instantly threw himself around Jack and pulled him away, while the Tooth and Sandy rushed to Bunny. Unfortunately for him, however, they were not there to bring comfort or aid. with a quick, barely understood order from Tooth to face to the left, the pooka was punched square in the jaw and even in his drunken haze could feel his teeth rattle. He surely would have lost his large buck teeth in front had Tooth not ordered him to turn away. Sandy, simply but more disturbingly simply stared at him with his little foot silently tapping on the ground in judgement.

"North, did you know he drugged me?" Jack duly whined.

"He had just confessed before you came," North replied somberly taking another shot straight from what was the fourth bottle the two spirits had opened. The other three were empty already.

"Bunny why?" Jack again whined, his voice betraying less as he pulled himself out of Cupids arms.

As if it were possible under all the alcohol he'd consumed, Aster sunk down even further into shame and tried, and failing, to hide behind North. Then taking another shot of liquid courage, he pulled himself up and stood before Jack like a man on a mission.

"Yes Jack. And I'm sorry for it. But I'm even more sorry for the need of it. I couldn't..." he paused seeming to lose his nerve. "I can't let you go to Pitch. There's too much history there. And not just for myself, but for all of us. If you go to Pitch, what does that say about us Guardians, huh?"

"I don't get what you mean," Jack said, trying to understand.

"If you go to Pitch, what does that mean about how good we guardians are at protecting each other? The fact that you can stand to be, hell want to be, in his presence at all... well, what does that say about how we've been there for you? What does that say about how I've been there for you?"

Everyone was silent and the tension grew. Aster tried to keep himself upright when he was finished speaking, but instead could only fall back onto the rock formation he'd been sitting on with North. Jack's mind went blank trying to comprehend what had just been said.

"Just say it, what do you want from me Aster?" Jack asked tiredly, using his friend's name which he so rarely did.

"I want you and me to be an us," Aster answered, sounding even more tired than Jack had.

Rubbing his face briskly with both hands, Jack tried to clear his mind of the haze of the poison that still remained in his bloodstream. The part of the flower that had managed to be digested before Pitch had pulled it out of him.

Pitch. The man who kissed him like there was no tomorrow, yet still had the promise of many more to come. The man who not minutes before had made him weak in the knees. And had he asked, could have so easily convinced Jack to leave the Warren with him right then.

But here was Aster. An animal by his standards, of course, but who had qualities that Jack couldn't help but admire. He was fearless and strong, and had that kind of confidence that only came when someone knew that they were 'good', no matter how others treated them like second best. And when he'd flirted with Jack, he'd had a assuredness that was hard to say no to. It was a bit intimidating, in a good way. Too good, because Jack didn't feel that way about him. When they were together, Jack would sometimes flirt back. But when he was away from Bunny, he rarely thought of him. Rarely wondered what he was doing, feeling, or any other thing. To Jack, Bunny's life was spent painting eggs. That was it, nothing more and nothing less. There wasn't any more room for anything more or less. Not even him.

So unlike Pitch. He was always thinking about Pitch. When he and Jack were together, their interactions were strange, but comfortable. When they went their separate ways, Jack would wander endlessly about whatever the Nightmare King might be doing. The space of Pitch's life - aside from he was plotting to destroy the dreams of children - was empty. There was plenty of room for something more or something less. Plenty for Jack.

But even if Jack was mischievous, he was loyal. And it seemed wrong to not do anything for his obviously hurting friend.

"Clean yourself up then," Jack said in a commanding voice, but not looking at Aster. "Tomorrow, you and I are going on a date."

There was a squeak of surprise from Toothiana and Aster both.

"I'll even stay here tonight, I won't leave until I have to. But if you ever try that shit on me again, I will make make so much snow here that there will be no Easter for a year!"


	9. The Date

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Nine - The Date

"You sure you want to do this Jack? It won't change anything. I still have an arrow for you with Pitch's name on it," Cupid said as he watched Jack use a clear pool of water as a mirror to nervously check his hair.

"I know you have. But I'll never forgive myself for not at least seemingly giving Aster a chance. I care about him, despite what he did yesterday and over the last couple of years. He's just that friend, I guess, that will always try for something more."

"I'm so tired of all that 'friendzone' bull that human's keep griping about," Cupid said angrily. "If people think that friendship is an automatic prerequisite to lust or even romantic love, then they seriously do not understand the natural course of things! If lust is there, it's there from the beginning. If love is there... well that's more complicated."

"Even when I was fighting him, back when I became a Guardian, I noticed the way Pitch moved..." Jack trailed off, seeing in his reflection the far off expression that was growing on his face at the thought of Pitch. "Are you doing this?"

"In a way. It's more complicated than that."

"When you shoot someone, Id, do they fall in love because of your magic? Or does your magic just sort of release the love... reveal the love?" Jack turned to his old friend.

"A little of both, I suppose." Cupid sighed when he saw Jack's withering glance. "Oh I know that it sounds like an answer that is just too easy. But it really is both. My arrows are more like inspiration for a lovely idea. Either the love does not yet exist, then my arrow gives the soul the concept of love for some person. Or the love does already exist, then my arrow gives the soul the idea to pursue a greater intimacy than what already exists."

"What did it do for Pitch?" Jack asked, curious but apprehensive.

"I think you already know," Cupid answered cryptically.

"And what about me? What will it do for me?"

"I wasn't entirely kidding, Jack, when I said that I was 'wondering if I need to shoot you at all.'"

The two were quiet then while Jack continued to look at his reflection and Cupid at him. Both of them considering what had been said. It was nearly five minutes before Jack finally turned to Cupid and smiled bravely.

"Well, let's get this over with." he said referring to the date.

"You do not have to do this," Cupid pushed.

"Yeah I do Id."

They then walked to the part of the Warren where Jack agreed to meet Aster. Where they would have their date, since Aster would not risk taking Jack outside of his domain. Upon seeing the other Guardians, Jack pushed back his shoulders, trying not to betray his uncertainty and went to Aster who seemed to shine with affection and sobriety.

After greeting one another and the others around them, Jack and Aster went their own way, walking side by side into the depths of the Warren while the others watched. They would not get any privacy for the date, with all of the others present being a bit wary of Aster after his behavior the day before. So while the two explored the prettiness of the setting, the other three Guardians and Cupid watched from a reasonable distance.

"They look a bit uncomfortable," Tooth worried.

"Jack is looking bored," North judged.

"They are not a good fit, there is too much about them that is different," Cupid said as he saw the two silently fish for something to say.

"Aster seems so desperate for Jack's attention," Tooth spoke again.

"He is a lonely, old rabbit. More susceptible to my influence than most. And Jack is a very pretty thing."

"Yes he is," Tooth fluttered down beside Cupid. "And he so young, and so free, unlike us."

"Freedom is in his nature, always will be. It's what he has over close relationships."

"Will he have it with Pitch?"

"Pitch is just a free as he is," Cupid answered. "All elementals are that way."

"Pitch?" North interrupted, surprised at the idea of Pitch being an elemental.

"Of course. He might call himself the 'Nightmare King', but even he admits to stealing the ability to corrupt dreams. You can't have forgotten that the shadows are as much of his nature as ice and cold are to Jack?"

"Perhaps it is because it is being so natural for him to be in shadows, and focuses on fear more," North suggested as a defence.

Cupid didn't answer. Instead he turned back to Jack and Aster and watched them stumble through their date. "Stop talking about yourself idiot, and let Jack have a part in the conversation!" Cupid muttered in frustration for his friend. The other Guardians hummed and nodded their agreement.

"I do not be thinking that work is good date activity," North grumbled as they watched Aster offer Jack and egg to paint. "Not on first date."

Sandy made some symbols over his head that made North sigh sadly.

"Not on last date either."

"Jack, he can't fly!" Tooth sighed as they watched Jack take to the air above Aster as he tried to focus on painting the egg the orange color Aster had given to him. It clearly made the pooka uncomfortable having his date float in the air over his head.

"Wait, that's not a good sign! If Jack can so easily take to the air..." Cupid worried.

"Then there must be enough cold wind to carry him," Tooth finished for him.

"We've got to get Jack out of here!" North announced, understanding immediately what they were worried about.

"Jack, mate, what are you doing?" they heard Aster yell suddenly.

Rushing over, Cupid and the others saw that while the egglet Jack held was still fine, all of the dozen or so eggs that Aster had painted were starting to frost over. And it wasn't just them, frost was starting to appear everywhere around them. Little flecks of it, ultimately harmless as it was now, but promising worse to come.

Everyone but Jack shivered suddenly as they felt a cold breeze cut across them. It carried Jack higher into the tall dome of the Warren before he could maneuver to fall against it and land beside his friends. The grassy floor where he landed freezing under his feet with the effort.

"What are ya doin' mate?" Aster repeated, gently this time.

"I'm not doing anything, it's just what happens," Jack replied.

"Couldn't you have held it off? For me?"

"I have been."

"How long before it is all covered with snow, Jack?" North asked kindly.

"At this rate, it'll start snowing by tonight. Icing over maybe tomorrow. And doing real damage the day after that," Jack answered. "I can't stay."

"You're not leaving!" Aster ordered.

"Aster! Your Warren! Everything will be ruined. I won't have to get angry at you to destroy your Easter if I stay."

"I don't care! You are going out there! You aren't going out to Pitch!"

"Then he'll destroy your Warren! And maybe you!"

"So what you're gonna sacrifice yourself to him for me? Sorry mate, but our date wasn't that good. No, I'm not letting you fall for him. Even if you and I aren't going to happen. Have Cupid pick someone else, because you are not going to Pitch!"

The air suddenly got colder.

"Don't you get it Jack?" Aster continued while approaching Jack. "He's evil! He's already taken everything away from me once. He killed my people!"

The air got even colder.

"I'm the last of my kind because of Pitch Black. Why can't that be enough reason for you? Why can't you just let me keep you safe? Why do you even want to entertain the idea of falling in love with him?"

"Because I already want to be with him!"


	10. A Guardian or Not

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Author's Note: Short chapter coming. Let me know what you guys are thinking. It might take a few days before the next chapter, because of life and I'm still trying to work out how Jack and Pitch's relationship should work without just doing what everyone else is doing.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Ten - A Guardian or Not

"Jack... what?" Aster breathed out, the cold starting to turn his air into steam.

"I want to be with Pitch. I have for a while now, since long before Cupid suggested it. I just..."

"But you're a bloody Guardian!" Aster roared.

"And that's not going to change!" Jack said with more determination than anyone had ever heard from him.

Suddenly there was a shift in the light and out of Jack's own shadow that lay on the ground behind him appeared Pitch. But he said nothing, only draped himself around Jack and burying his face into the frost spirit's long cold neck from behind.

"What in the hell are you doin' here?" Aster roared even louder.

Pitch did not answer. Instead he held Jack tighter and kissed the skin under his lips sweetly.

Aster drew his boomerangs out from the pouch behind his back and held them at the ready. "You said two whole days!"

Pitch kissed Jack's neck again but then rose up to his full height, unwrapped his arms from around Jack leaving only a large hand upon his shoulder, came out from behind the boy and looked Aster in the eyes.

"I hardly think that's necessary anymore. Hearing Jack say those words has put me in a gracious mood, rabbit. Do not ruin it by challenging me."

But Aster was not in the mood to hear any kind of such a warning. He attacked, using his boomerangs as daggers since he was so close to his target. Pitch shoved Jack away to the safety at Cupid's side and used his shadows to tease his opponent away from the crowd. When he was far enough away from Jack and the others, Pitch formed his own massive scythe from the black sand that he still controlled. But his swings were too large, and Aster dodged them without too much difficulty. Aster was all speed and up close combat. Pitch was power and long range. Neither were particularly suited to fighting the other. But both had enough experience to make the fight last.

Aster seemed to be winning with his strategy of coming in close to hit Pitch then to duck away just as fast before Pitch could grab him. It wasn't easy, Pitch swung his weapon in a way to keep him out of reach, but the pooka was fast. And Pitch was limiting himself to not using the shadows. Everyone knew that if he wanted, Pitch could easily overpower Aster by simply going in and out of shadows and taking his opponant down that way. But he wasn't doing that. He was fighting fairly and on the same level as Aster. And Jack wasn't the only one who noticed, by the sound of it - because he didn't dare turn away from the fight, so had the other Guardians.

After a particularly mean kick from one of Aster's large feet to Pitch's face, Jack couldn't take watching anymore. He knew that getting in between them would not be safe, but he did not have to. with a flick of his tall shepards crook, he made a wall of hard ice between the two and only when Pitch stopped at the sight of it did he fly over to him.

"No more," Jack said softly and Pitch relented. Jack then offered his hand to Pitch, which he took, and the two began their way back over the the other Guardians and Cupid. "We're going now. I just want to tell you that you don't have to worry about me. I'll be around."

"We know you will be," North answered, raising a brow to Pitch.

Tooth flew close and pulled Jack into a hug then just as quickly flew out and over to Pitch. The two of them eyed one another for a moment, then Tooth smiled a knowing smile and returned back over to the rest of the Guardians.

"Can I get a ride from you out Pitch?" Cupid spoke up. "I've got no idea where I am much less how to get out."

Pitch nodded his compliance.

"Wait!" came the voice of Aster who was making his slow way over to them. "Just tell me; what does he have that I don't?"

There were three pairs of grit his teeth not to say something smart, like, 'aside from being a human-like spirit like Jack'.

"Fun," Jack said finally. "Pitch knows how to have fun."

At that, Pitch laughed. A warm humble laugh that was not in his nature that surprised everyone that heard it. He then wrapped his arm around Jack's shoulder and said with a jovial expression; "I'll show you fun!"

They disappeared then, Cupid too, leaving the Warren far behind them.

When Jack could see again, he and Pitch were standing together atop a human made tower above a snow covered world, with Cupid some feet away from them. He breathed in the refreshingly cold air and felt better than he had since being taken to the Warren.

"Well, I suppose this is goodbye to you both for some time," Cupid said. "I've got my own holiday coming up to worry about."

"You never worry about that Id," Jack pointed out knowing that his friend did nothing different on his holiday than any other day.

Cupid laughed smugly. "Don't I? Jack if you need anything, you know where to find me."

"You're not going to shoot me with one of those arrows?"

"Don't need to kid, what you've got is true love. And that's not my business, I'm just a lust spirit who happens to know how to make it last." Cupid then came close and ruffled Jack's hair affectionately, much to his annoyance. Then shared a look with Pitch that Jack couldn't read until both men nodded some kind of consent.

And with that, Cupid left. Stretching his large feathered wings out at their near ten foot span and took off to find his cloud.


	11. Wicked Fun

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Eleven - Wicked Fun

"So, you said something about showing me some fun?" Jack coyly asked Pitch once Cupid was away.

Again Pitch laughed that warm, humble laugh that had so surprised everyone back in the Warren. The sound lasted longer this time and morphed slowly into something that had a bit of devilish delight to it.

"Tell me Jack, have you ever gone to one of those things human's call a movie?"

Jack looked at Pitch in genuine surprise. "Seriously?" he laughed, not knowing what else to say. The thought of Pitch sitting in a theater with a bucket of cold, buttery popcorn in his lap made him laugh all the harder.

Pitch grinned, his sharp teeth showing. His eyes held a secret.

Traveling again through the shadows, they appeared in the dark expanse of a theater full of humans. It was full, and they were greeted by echoed screaming coming from the speakers and a woman running from faceless monster on the massive screen.

"These are teenagers Jack," Pitch whispered hotly into Jack's ear. "They have come to a horror film to have 'some fun'. So why don't we show them some?"

Jack grinned wickedly, realizing how perfect it was. Both he and Pitch could do just about anything they wanted here. Teens were an interesting ild for spirit kind who desired believers. Their experience in life took away most of their ability to believe in characters such as Jack Frost and Pitch Black. Yet their youth made them susceptible to the fun and fear that the spirits could offer.

With an excited shiver that shook his entire body, Jack made the space begin to cool, watching as the audience grew a bit uncomfortable from it and the gore on screen.

Pitch for his part, made the shadows in the already dark room even darker and impenetrable by even the bright light coming off of the projection. Then he did something that Jack would not have guessed to expect from him in a million years. He started humming. And humming a Christmas carol no less! Then when he came to the appropriate point in the song, he opened his mouth and sang in the most sultry voice that Jack had ever heard; "Jack Frost nipping at your nose."

Jack's knees went soft and he thanked his luck for having his staff to lean on.

Pitch then left Jack's side to demonstrate his plan. Standing directly in front of a girl, knowing that she could not see him, he stretched out his long grey fingers and pinched the sensitive outcrop of her face between his forefinger and thumb. His grip was rather tight. I would have been painful for the girl had she believed in Pitch. But she also should not have felt it at all, nonbelievers rarely were able to be affected by any direct contact with spirits. But as it was, with her nerves frazzled by the terror of the film, she did feel the contact. The girl twitched in seat and made a high squeeling scream that made everyone in the theater look in her direction. The people around her laughed at her fear, their own nervousness clear in their voices, while the girl first looked embarrassed and then also began to laugh before the movie caught her attention again.

Pitch looked back at Jack triumphantly.

Jack laughed, delighted at the trick. Then leaping spitefully over Pitch's head, he copied the action on a boy who held a bored looking girl against his side. The boy was less vocal than Pitch's girl, but he jumped so much that he disturbed and humored his date who started to laugh at him. Jack's grin grew, pleased at the result.

Only the feel of a hand gently being laid upon his shoulder and then sweeping across his back to lay on the other before leaving entirely distracted Jack from the joke. Turning, he saw that Pitch had drifted by him to attack another woman's nose while looking at Jack with an expression of pure enjoyment, which Jack had never seen on his face before.

And so it continued through the rest of the movie. Jack and Pitch pinching the noses of the audience members who they instinctually knew believed enough for them to touch. All the while, the two spirits flirted with one another with teasing touches and teasing glances as they played out their prank. Pitch particularly liked to pet Jack, especially when his touch could come unexpectedly. While Jack found it particularly fun to rush past Pitch just out of his long reach, with a 'come hither' glance thrown in his partner's direction.

By the time the movie had ended, the two had managed to make nearly half of the audience cry out with exhilarating fear. As they exited, the humans made laughing commentary to the experience saying that the movie had been the scariest they had ever seen. "I actually felt it," Jack heard one girl say to her friends who were laughing about her reaction to the movie monster.

As the theater emptied Pitch and Jack settled together in the best seats at the back, just under the projector window. But they weren't watching the crowd leave. They were too preoccupied with each other to care about that or the theater employees coming in to clean up. Both were fairly brimming with excitement and pleasure. Each had drunken in the fear and fun energy to their full and were left with a need to feel each other.

When Jack was within reach, Pitch took him into his arms and dragged the boy-faced immortal down onto his lap as he somehow gracefully fell into the theater seat. His lips immediately pressed to Jack's, kissing the pretty blue tinged lips with such fervor that both he and Jack moaned at the first taste. Pitch's arms wound around Jack tightly, pressing the smaller body so close to his own that even through the fabric of his cloak and Jack's hoodie, he could feel each beat of Jack's happy heart.

Jack for his part was finding himself growing aroused for what was only the second time since his human death, and he didn't intend to waste it. As soon as he had been pulled into Pitch's lap, Jack's arms had been around the man's neck making sure the lips would not leave him. But slowly he moved them so that he could first cup Pitch's amazing cheek bones and then travel past his sharp jaw and long neck. Finally at the place where the long black cloak began Jack pushed his cool fingers under the collar opening it wide and over Pitch's shoulders.

Pitch took the hint and pulled away to throw the cloak off of his arms and torso while Jack pulled his own top up and over his head.

Once they were both shirtless, Jack and Pitch attacked each other's lips again. But this time instead of wrapping their arms about the other's body, they instead traced the shape of the naked skin before them. Jack liked Pitch's unexpectedly strong front with heavy pectorals and etched abdominal muscles that were normally hidden under slimming black. Pitch was fond of Jack's long thin back where he could feel every vertebra and every stronger than expected muscle pulling taut as he Jack stretched to both continue the deep kisses and thrust his hips against Pitch's own.

Both moaned hotly at the feel of each other's arousal. Putting his hands onto Jack's hips to hold him still, Pitch reluctantly pulled his tongue from Jack's mouth and trailed kisses across his face over to suck on the shell of his ear: "Jack, love, tell me to stop."

Author's Note: okay so really, tell me to stop. I will be making this NC-17 next chapter (notice this chapter has nothing more than what network television would show between heterasexual couples) unless someone gives me a VERY good reason not to. Also, I don't own "A Christmas Song", Nat King Cole's estate does I think. But I did not want to say that earlier and give it away.


	12. Lust in the Shade

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long, midterms. Anyway... enjoy!

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Twelve - Lust in the Shade

"If you stop now, I will go Guardian on your ass!" Jack growled at Pitch.

Pitch chortled in response. There would be no need for such violence, he would make sure of it. Shifting his grip on Jack's skinny hips, he pressed his long fingers the underside of the leather clad thighs spread apart around his own.

He did not return his lips Jack's mouth, rather he hotly dragged them down the side of the white throat before him. He had already had a tasted of the milky skin there when he had gone to Jack with such joy he could not remember ever feeling before when the Guardian had declared that he already wanted Pitch. But those little kisses had not prepared Pitch for the flavor that he would taste with his entire mouth closing against a fluttering pulse. Jack's flavor was subtle and hidden by the coldness of his body, it reminded Pitch of fresh cream with its smoothness with just a hint of tart.

As he tasted and pet Jack, Pitch also encouraged the little thrusts by the frost spirit was making by rocking against Jack's clothed hardness with him. The feeling was so heavy, so electrifying, and promised so very much that a part of the shadow spirit wanted to run and hide. He had not felt such affection for so long that having it was terrifying. But fear was his element and even if he should never again have Jack in his arms, bucking his erection against him again, then Pitch would enjoy what he could while he could.

Pitch was so enthralled with the feel of Jack on him and thrusting against him that he was shocked when his pants suddenly came open. Jack's cold hands had not been inactive while Pitch was enjoying himself. Rather, Jack had been working on releasing the hooks and buttons of Pitch's old military style pants. When he finally had the front flap open Jack nearly tore the fabric moving it out of the way. Then with the same desperate fingers, he pulled at the leather ties that held his own leather britches. When his penis was free, he immediately moved back to thrust it against Pitch's own.

No longer obstructed by centuries old fabric, Pitch couldn't help but moan at the cold feel of Jack's hardness against his own warmth. The chill shocked him even though he had so much of the rest of cold body already against him. For some strange reason, some part of Pitch had assumed that Jack would be warm where it mattered. But that was not the case and Pitch would just have to adjust.

"Sorry," Jack whispered, sensing his partner's discomfort.

"Hush love," Pitch pecked Jack's lips with a reassuring kiss. "What have I told you? 'What goes better than cold and dark.'"

Moving his hands away from the Jack' thighs, Pitch took both his and Jack's phallus into one while he let the other push down into the back of the leather pants still covering Jack's skinny ass. Forcing so much contact between them hurt Pitch's cock just a little, but he ignored the pain and gripped even more tightly. Then with agonizing slowness, he pulled his hand from the base of their two penises to the heads, then pushed back down to the base. The action made Jack sob out a moan that echoed in the theater so loudly that Pitch was sure that the cleaning crew who were still about them heard, judging from the taste of their sudden fear. So again Pitch pulled and pushed, his own pleasure growing with Jack's.

With each caress of their organs, Pitch's hand moved more quickly, more desperately. By the time his hand was moving as fast as it could, Pitch had long forgot the ache from the cold. His hand had effectively warmed Jack to a temperature very like his own cooler than human but warm temperature.

Jack's back, however, was still cold to Pitch's touch. All the while when he was frotting his and Jack's penises together, his other hand had preoccupied itself with petting Jack's tight little anus. He wasn't quick to penetrate it, though, he had no lubricant to make it easy for Jack. So instead Pitch bided his time simply fingering the entrance, getting it accustomed to and wanting the touch.

It did not take long for the little hole to respond favorably to the petting. Soon enough, it was opening itself under the fingers as if beckoning them deeper. And Pitch could hardly refuse such a solicitous invitation. With a gentle push he put the tip of his long index finger into the open depth and waited for Jack's muscle to close around it. When it did tighten around him, it was Pitch's turn to fill the theater with an echoing moan. One which he was sure that the cleaning crew heard as they hurried out at the sound.

Pitch wished dearly that he could see the way Jack's sweet little tush closed around his finger. He wanted to watch the penetration, to know by sight his claim. But the pleasure of thrusting with Jack into his other hand was too great to make him able to move away from it. Plus there would be the next time he had Jack at his sexual mercy. And every time after that judging by the feel of him. Even if they were to lay together multiple times a day for the rest of eternity, Pitch guessed that Jack would always need to be fingered before any other kind of penetration. The winter spirit was just too cold on the inside for Pitch to ever simply thrust into erection first. It was like dipping bare into a frozen pond, sharp and numbing. But like with Jack's front, Pitch guessed that with enough contact and friction, it too would warm enough to be comfortable.

But oh! The tightness Jack's body offered! It was overwhelming and oh so welcoming.

"Pitch!" whined beautifully catching Pitch's attention from his play. Lifting from where he'd still had his face buried in the white collar before him, Pitch was only mildly surprised when Jack pushed his hungry mouth onto his. Tasting the frostbitten mouth and feeling cold hands being pushed into his hair, pulling him even deeper into the kiss, Pitch knew that Jack was nearing his orgasmic summit.

"Cum, love, let go," Pitch whispered into Jack's mouth for him to swallow. Then as further incentive for him, Pitch pushed his long finger deeper into the willing body. In all the way to the knuckle and putting pressure onto the sensitive place in Jack's anus. The bundle of nerves and burning cold that made Jack scream and pour out his icy pleasure.

So consumed with Jack's orgasm as Pitch that his own was able to sneak up on him, bringing him to his finish just as Jack was shuttering out the last of his. The flush of pleasure felt like fire to Pitch against Jack's frozen body. He could not see, could not hear, could not speak though he was sure that he was screaming. Every part of his body ceased to exist except for the place behind his eyes and everything between his legs. It was lovely and numbing and would have been consuming if Pitch did not feel sharp teeth gently biting the tip of his nose.

"Brat!" Pitch chided as he slumped into the seat, pulling Jack to lay on him, and tried to settle his breathing and heart.

"You haven't moved in five minutes, I was starting to think you'd blanked out," Jack answered while he buried into Pitch's chest. "We should get out of here."

"Why?" Pitch asked lazily, not able to move or even speak with his usual eloquence.

He was answered not by Jack, but by the growing noise of human's coming into the theater.

"Oh."


	13. A Romance in the Shadows and Snow

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Author's Note: Again, sorry this took so long. Life happened. And I was debating with myself on where to take this chapter quite a lot.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Thirteen - A Romance in the Shadows and Snow

Getting out of the theater had been easy enough with Pitch's power to travel through shadows. And Jack found that he did not mind the mode so long as he wasn't falling alone through the darkness. As it was, with his body so tight against Pitch's, the journey was gentle and rather pleasant. Like simply walking through a familiar hallway that had no lights on.

When they arrived outside of the movie theater, Jack found that somehow both his and Pitch's penises had been tucked delicately back into their pants and that their pants had been closed. Jack was still shirtless, though, and Pitch still had his robe wide open. And they were still pressed tightly together; Jack with his arms around Pitch's waist and Pitch still had his down the back of Jack's pants with the other holding his hip tightly.

"Oh! If anyone could see us, I would dare them to tell me to stop," Pitch whispered hotly as he gave one last thrusting twitch of his finger in Jack before pulling it out completely.

Jack responded with a gentle kiss on Pitch's chest, just above his left nipple. "Kiss me?"

Pitch smiled and bent to fulfill the request.

...

Jacked laughed joyfully as he let the wind throw him about like a leaf. He had no determined destination. He simply wanted to fly in the cool, moonless night sky.

"Care for some company?"

Surprised, Jack stopped laughing and opened his eyes to see Pitch on the back of a nightmare flying not a meter from him. The dark spirit looked rather regal to Jack, rather than up for any kind of fun. So with a grin that startled Pitch Jack let one of his snowflakes fly into his lover's face.

Pitch grinned. And then he laughed. And then he forced the mare to move close to Jack and then reached out to the frost spirit; "Come here, you!"

"Nope! You're going to have to catch me!" Jack crowed as he moved out of reach and then flew with greater speed away from Pitch.

"If I can catch those little teeth minions, I can certainly catch you!" Pitch chuckled as he made his mount dive after his lovely prey.

...

If anyone had asked Jack before his romantic relationship with Pitch had started if he could ever imagine the shadow spirit playing in the snow, he would have given an emphatic negative. But there Pitch was, not far from Jack's pond, using his shadows to making an arsenal of hundreds of perfectly sized snow balls. All ready to be used in a mighty snowball fight that Pitch obviously foresaw.

Jack felt a bit bad. Pitch was obviously expecting him to come from his pond, but Jack had come from the east, putting him behind Pitch's guard. He couldn't let this perfect sneak attack go to waste, however, so with silent movements that he was rarely capable of Jack made some perfect ammunition of his own before he attacked.

...

Movie theaters were starting to become their thing. Whenever Jack and Pitch wanted to be intimate, they would find the closest theater showing any horror film and soak in the fun and fear of the humans who enjoyed it. Then like the first time, they would revel in the flush of power they experienced and enjoy the feel of the other's closeness.

Jack's body would still not always respond to intimate touch.

Jack did find, however, much to his and especially Pitch's relief that he did always enjoy giving Pitch pleasure. He was quickly becoming an expert at handjobs and oral sex. He loved to watch Pitch shutter when he twisted his hand at the head of his tall grey cock just so. Or wreath when he ever so gently nipped at the place just below the head where the heavy vein started to disappear into the top of the organ.

...

Aside from his times of hibernation when the Earth was too warm for him, Jack rarely slept. Like once every twenty or so years, rarely. And when he did, he would most often find a nook at the roots of a great tree in the nearest forest. So when he awoke to find himself in the arms of Pitch on a fabulous bed of feather filled pillows and black satin sheets, he was more than a little surprised.

"I found you in Japan, tucked into a tree with little snow covered monkeys trying to wake you up," Pitch said very matter of factly. "Do you always sleep like that?"

"Not specifically there, no," Jack shrugged as he moved to make more contact between their bodies. "I just sleep wherever."

Pitch's expression became more concerned than Jack had ever seen it before.

"Where are we?" Jack asked as he began to realise that their surroundings did not match anything that he had found in Pitch's lair, the two times he had been there.

"Some apartment in Seattle," Pitch waved his hand as if to distract Jack from the answer.

"'_Some apartment_'?"

"Jack, I am the boogieman who hides under beds. Do you really think that I keep a bed for myself?" Pitch sighed as if resigned to revealing a dirty secret.

"Wait, so if you get tired, you just find an empty bed and sleep there?"

Pitch said nothing and would not look Jack in the eyes.

"That's the same thing I do! How can you get bent outta shape about finding me in a tree when I could just as likely find you dead to the bed buddy who couldn't see you!"

Pitch made a face of distaste; "I at least, have the good sense to not expose myself to gods only knows what."

Then Jack had a thought, he knew what people had black satin sheets for! With speed that would impress Bunny, he threw himself up and out of the bed, leaving Pitch for a total loss. "You sure you aren't exposing yourself to stuff?" Jack teased as he pointed to a stain he could see from his new angle.

...

Jack was surprised to learn that Pitch liked to watch the sunrise. When he asked Pitch about it, his answer was; "of course I like the light, there would be no shadows without it". So it became a ritual for them to find a place, high and out of the way, to quietly watch the world become saturated with color and light.

On one such romantic appointment, Jack found that he didn't care to watch the sun, but rather watch Pitch's face as it did. Curled tightly to his lover's side, Jack could see every detail of his Lover that he had never noticed before. Reaching up, Jack pulled Pitch's face to him and then pet the place on his left brow where hair should be.

"You don't even have eyelashes," Jack wondered quietly. Then he let his hand card back into Pitch's hair but realised that it wasn't hair at all, rather a multitude of very thin, stiff feathers that resembled hair.

Pitch had begun to look embarrassed and tried to pull away to watch the sun.

"I always knew that you reminded me of a bird," Jack laughed sweetly as he pulled Pitch down closer to him so that he could whisper against his lips; "I always liked birds".

And Jack always liked kissing Pitch too.

...


	14. Snowstorms

Disclaimer: obviously I do not own anything to do with _Rise of the Guardians, _or the books that inspired the movie.

Author's Note: A second chapter today to make up for my absence and the last one being so short. Though with 3 long papers due soon, it might be a while before the next one.

Cupid's Strike

Chapter Fourteen - Snowstorms

Pitch stood at the edge of the old German town, watching with certain level of delight as everything became slick with ice that cut power, froze water mains, and threatened the comfortable lives of the human residents. Jack, he knew, would not do too much damage, but the Nightmare King would enjoy the many nightmares that would come from the frigid attack. Yet despite how thrilled he might have been about what Jack was doing, Pitch was not at all happy about why he was attacking the town.

The idiot Guardians were being difficult about his and Jack's still budding relationship again. _Again! _Thankfully, not to the same degree as when the rabbit had kidnapped Jack, but they were still not above getting in the way. This time, North, who had originally been fairly neutral about everything, had shown up during one of their dates and not left. No matter how much they insisted. No matter how they'd tried to run, North followed. Not until Jack had gone with him to see some new toy he'd imagined and made, leaving Pitch with only a promise of meeting again later.

A promise kept. But with Jack returning very upset.

They had apparently tried to hook him up with some sugar nymph, tall and well built and looking very much like Pitch himself. He just had the advantage, in their mind, of just not actually being Pitch himself. It had all been very uncomfortable, Jack said, because they had not explained to the poor spirit that Jack was already technically taken. So after he'd made some grand gesture of asking Jack out, only minutes into meeting him, Jack had been forced to be the one to explain that he was in a relationship and that he - the poor nymph - was nothing more than a tool for the Guardians. The sugar numph hadn't taken it well apparently.

Then once that was sorted out, the argument between Jack and the other Guardians had started yet again and ended in exactly the same place. The Guardians concerned for his safety and sanity, and Jack morosely wondering why his friends could not let him live his life and love who he loved.

North turning to Toothiana and Bunnymund's side of the argument instead of remaining unconcerned like he had started, left Jack particularly disheartened, Pitch knew. And that he had been the one to lure Jack into this trap, hurt even more. The Guardian of wonder was to Jack a father figure.

Hense why Jack was taking out his rage and depression on the hapless town. While Pitch patiently watched and waited, out of the way but still in sight for Jack.

Even Pitch could sympathize with not having a father's approval and what that could do to a heart. And to not have the support of friends. And to be forced to question the validity of the relationship he was in by everyone around.

Lately Pitch had begun to have his own doubts about their relationship. Or rather, doubts about his love for Jack. Jack he did not doubt. Jack was fighting the only family he had known since being made into an immortal spirit. Jack was opening his legs to him without fear of being hurt. And opening his heart. Yet Pitch had no one on his side objecting to the match, no one to fight. He had nothing more than cold to fear from Jack, for his body or for his heart. And worse, Pitch had needed to be hit by Cupid's arrow to pursue Jack despite the lack of any real risk to himself.

Pitch had once asked Jack if he was worried about it. If he resented that Pitch was essentially not making any sacrifices equal to his own for their love. Jack had only smile wistfully and told him simply that he did not. Which, of course, made Pitch worry all the more.

Pitch was no fool, he knew how Cupid's arrows worked. He knew that the love he had for Jack was not created, just heightened. That it was real. But he also knew that an unequal love only meant trouble for the future. If one partner loved the other more, or at least proved their love more, than they would eventually feel cheated. And Pitch didn't want Jack to feel cheated. That might mean the frost spirit would leave. And Pitch would give anything for Jack not to leave.

_Anything! _If only Jack knew that.

So Pitch had to come up with a way to prove his love, to Jack and to himself.

Romance, like the kind they saw humans sharing with flowers and chocolates and epic miscommunications, was out. Flowers died when Jack touched them. Neither of them ate. And he being able to read fear and Jack have a talent for hearing what was not said in a conversation, meant that miscommunication took so much effort that it wasn't worth it to either of them. Besides, neither of them felt particularly comfortable with the doating affection that was associated with that kind of romance.

Starting a war with the Guardians again was out. Even if Pitch had the energy to do so, Jack would not be impressed by it, and would probably fight against him despite how angry he was with them.

A contest, like the ancient battles that immortals fought against other spirits trying to catch the eye of their beloveds, had two problems. Firstly, Jack had no other pursuers. Second, Jack was so young, that he likely would not know how to deal with that kind of behavior.

A test would very likely confuse Jack also. After all, there were certain ceremonial expectations of the spirit any test was made to impress. And as happy as Pitch would be to simply accept a thank you for his efforts, the rules of the spirit world worked against that. And he didn't want to make any more trouble for Jack, that would defeat the point of the exercise.

Pitch needed help it was clear. But that created a whole other kind of problem in itself. Who would help him to woo and prove his love to Jack? There were not a whole lot of spirits who either liked him enough to listen and advise, or who approved of the romance. Even beyond the Guardian Spirits. The Leshy, the only spirit Pitch might describe as a friend - though that was stretching it, only knew of Jack and had even less of a romantic incline than Pitch himself. Bean Sidhe was fond enough of Pitch to advise him, and knew Jack a little and liked him, but to her romance involved a dramatic death. Only Cupid was left on the list that Pitch knew Jack knew and approved of their relationship. Yet despite his involvement already in their relationship or perhaps because of his involvement, Pitch hesitated.

There was still one other Pitch could think of who might have answers for him. Sanderson. Sandy still approved of his and Jack's romance despite what the other Guardians said or did. And Pitch was sure that Jack had already gone to him for advice. But the very idea of approaching his long time enemy made Pitch hesitate even more than he did at the thought of asking Cupid. Just a few years ago it would have been suicidal for him to go to Sanderson for any reason. Of course he could not die, but the little golden spirit had an icy temper that would impress Jack if he ever saw it to its greatest extent and left Pitch wishing for death to end his physical pain. Yet Sandy was still Pitch's best option.

So go to Sandy for advice on how to make Jack feel cherished, Pitch would. After he kissed the hurt away from Jack's eyes when he was calm enough to approach. Which would likely be once Jack heard the sad voices of children realizing that their snow day would have to be spent inside due to the still plummeting temperatures.

...


End file.
